Andante

XXIII

He looked at the contents of his wardrobe despondently. What does one wear to ones first dance with a girl? His thoughts kept going back to the look in Brett's eyes when he'd given him the high five and winked as he'd wished him a good night. 
His mum had stood in the doorway and looked at them both with a smile on her face. He was sure she hadn't seen that look. Thank God. 
He shrugged and quickly pulled on a black shirt and black jeans. He so wasn't going near his dressy concert clothes. Lily wasn't like that, anyway. 

He regretted his decision when he rang Lily's doorbell and she opened the door in a beautiful dark grey floor length dress, her long black hair elegantly pulled back in a bun. Wow. She really did look amazing. A pang of guilt flashed through his stomach, but he pushed it away. 
¨Wow, Lily, you look awesome! I... I think I'm underdressed here!¨
She smiled one of her sweet, shy smiles. ¨No Eddy, you look very nice.¨
Lily's father was stood behind her and stared at him sternly. 
¨You have her back by ten, mr Chen.¨
¨I will, mr Huang!¨ he hastened to say in Mandarin. 
Lily's dad turned around after one last glare at Eddy and disappeared into the house. 

They walked off to the school together. Lily lived even closer to school than he did.
They walked in silence for a while, because Eddy had absolutely no idea what to say to her. All out of suave tonight, hey, mate? 
¨So, how did busking go? Did you make lots of money?¨ Lily asked then in her soft voice. 
¨It was great!¨ Eddy gushed without thinking. ¨Yes, we did make money and the playing went super well. It's like he just gets everything I do and the other way around as well. It's so great! And there was this one lady who told me I should study music when I grow up.¨ He silently berated himself straight away. Stop gushing, you idiot. This date shouldn't be about Brett. It should be about Lily! 
¨I'm guessing she wasn't Asian?¨ Lily said, a smile on her lips. 
Eddy laughed. ¨Nope. Got it in one.¨
¨I'm glad you had so much fun.¨ she said. He looked at her, but he couldn't quite place her expression. 

The gym was completely transformed. There were coloured lights playing over the walls, there were large drapes in all kinds of colours hung and the light was muted. The standard pop music was pounding and there were kids in pairs everywhere. By the time they got in there were lots of couples on the dance floor already. 
Eddy had a stone in his stomach. He wasn't good at dancing anyway, but now he swore he'd never felt this awkward in his entire life. God. Why had he thought this was a good idea again?
They stood on the side line for a few songs, but then Lily took his hand and led him onto the dance floor. He followed her meekly. It was an up-tempo song, thank God, so he sort of jigged a bit from one foot to the other and smiled encouragingly at Lily as the closing cadenza came over the PA. Of course there were only three chords in the song anyway: D, G and A. Original.
But when the new song came on he recognised it straight away. Shit. It wasn't an up-tempo song and he wanted to run out of the gym as fast as he could. 
Lily smiled and shuffled closer and he swallowed as he put his hands on her waist.
I'm a fraud! Don't do that! he wanted to shout. But of course he wasn't only a fraud, he was a coward too, so he stayed silent and tried to dance. Come on mate, get your fucking game face on. He could do this. 
They swayed slowly from side to side, and Lily rested her head on his shoulders. She smelled nice. Her hair smelled fruity, like bananas and pineapples. Yep. He could do this.
Very carefully he put his hand on her back and swayed. 

He heard Andrew before he saw him. ¨Kissy kissy kissy!¨ he hissed in his ear as he whirled past, Amanda on his arm. 
He knew he was just winding him up. But he felt like he might throw up as the nerves overtook him. Kissing Lily. Whoa. The whole gym turned in circles in front of his eyes. 
When the song ended Lily eyed him curiously. ¨You okay?¨ she asked, shouting to be heard over the music. 
¨Yeah, sure!¨ he shouted back. ¨Let's go get a drink!¨
Lily narrowed her eyes and then she took him by the hand and lead him out of the gym into the sultry Brisbane night. As soon as the air hit his face he breathed deeply. Pfew. He was so dizzy. 
¨Are you okay, Eddy?¨ Lily asked again. 
¨I'm okay.¨ he said. And then he added: ¨I'm not much of a big crowd party person, to be honest.¨
He hung his head in shame. Lily would think he was so lame. 
¨That's fine, Eddy, we'll just sit here and chat, okay? I like chatting with you.¨
He looked at her and he would have said he was fine, that they could go back in, but he was so grateful he could cry. Lily was so nice and she understood him. 
They sat down on their bench, ignoring the few couples further away who were already snogging. No one was paying them any attention. 
And he really did like sitting here and chatting with Lily. He didn't even mind when she sat close and rested her head on his shoulder. 
So when, after a while, she turned up her face to his and looked at him with soft eyes he thought he could do this. I can do this. He leant over slightly as she closed her eyes and he let his lips meet hers.